- Mobbed?
Playtime!
For more info on the upcoming Underexposed screening, please “like” https://www.facebook.com/UnderxposedDoc
In a Nutshell…
Author Archives: ameliabrodka
Obsessively skateboarding,
Double-majoring in Communication and Narrative Studies at the University of Southern California,
Writing for the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism's website,
My New Pro Model Board is now available for sale!
The talented Michal Brodka has truly outdone himself this time. Thanks for designing my new board, Mike! And thank you Tragedy Skateboards for making me a new pro model board!
Please contact therootsdist@gmail.com to get your own or to get them in stock at your local shop!
Underexposed update
Here’s a glimpse of what else you might expect in the documentary:
New Underexposed Teaser: Poseiden’s Oahu Tour
So while I’ve been huddled away in the editing cave piecing together the documentary, Producer Brian Lynch has been busy filming the Poseiden Foundation’s Oahu Tour.
Micaela Ramirez‘ Poseiden Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the youth. This tour brought role models such as Cara-Beth Burnside, Jen O’Brien, Abisha Alshebaiki, Heidi Newton, and Jen Valenzuela to schools across the island where they gave motivational speeches and skated with the students.
Lizzie Armanto, Allysha Bergado, and Hunter Long also shared their love of skateboarding by joining the Poseiden crew in various meet-and-greets and demos at skateparks all around Oahu.
Check out the teaser filmed & edited by Brian Lynch:
And be on the lookout for the new Underexposed site launching soon…
Passion
I was recently invited to Belmont High School to talk to 9th and 10th graders about pursuing your passions.
I talked about my love for skateboarding and the process of making Underexposed.
As a media academy, they were interested in the topics covered in Underexposed. I showed them a few teaser clips.
There were a lot of girls who talked to me about their interest in skateboarding.
Surprisingly, many of them shared the same story, their moms told them that “Skateboarding is not for girls.” After seeing clips from Underexposed, they saw that their moms were clearly misinformed.
After the presentation, I gave out some equipment from S-One and Tragedy Skateboards to help spread the skate love.
Want to be in Underexposed?
I have been completely immersed in putting together Underexposed. Filming. Setting up interviews and shoots. Traveling. Logging what must be nearly 100 hours of footage. Editing.
It’s all slowly coming together and it should still be done by May.
DO YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF IT?
If you are a female who happens to love skateboarding, I’d love to see if I can put a clip of you in the film!
Here’s all you have to do:
Send me some clips of you skating and an introduction.
Don’t have any skate clips? At least send over an introduction!
For the introduction all that you have to do is grab a digital camera (or a friend who has one), make sure your face and shoulders are in the frame and say: “Hi my name is _____________ I (something quick about you– play a sport? have a job? what grade are you in?) and I’m a skateboarder”
In order to get your footage to me or producer Brian Lynch click this link: https://public.me.com/lannybirch , click on the “UnderexposedUpload” folder, then click the up arrow at the top of the window and then choose whatever files you’d like to send.
All ages/abilities/nationalities are welcome and encouraged to submit!
In case you forgot what Underexposed is all about, click here to watch the trailer
Combi Classic Video Recap
Great turnout, great energy, great people.
The level of women’s skateboarding is certainly rising.
I spent most of the super finals in awe of how well all of the other girls were doing and fed off of their great energy in my own runs. I’m really proud of how well everyone skated and very grateful for everyone who came out to support. All of the skaters really pushed themselves and each other in the infamous combi bowl!
I’m really glad I got to be a part of it and I’m already excited for next year!
Check out the clip compiled by the dedicated Brian Lynch:
PROgress
This is a delicate time for women’s skateboarding. As traditional avenues for girls and women to progress the sport dwindle, there is great potential for those within it to truly nurture its GROwth.
The community dedicated to promoting girls’ skateboarding is full of individuals with good intentions and passionate efforts.
Let’s look at some of the successes these passion projects have had: GRO has given the gift of skateboarding to hundreds of young girls all over the country with learn-to-skate workshops, The Alliance influenced ESPN to give equal prize money for men’s and women’s divisions at the X-Games, Silly Girl has given up-and-coming girls the opportunity to travel and compete, AGSJ has created girls contests for over a decade, SLAG promotes growth at a local level, MAHFIA provides a media outlet, The Side Project brings these successes to light…
Needless to say this is a condensed list of both organizations and their victories.
Each of these organizations was formed under the same pretense: to support the progress of women’s skateboarding. So let’s all give one another a pat on the back and continue moving forward. There are still loopholes that need to be filled, weaknesses that need to be strengthened and legitimacy that needs to be earned.
Whatever the focus, whether it’s supporting PRO, flow, PRO-AM, shop flow, WCS ranked, AM, Grom or a skateboard mom, let’s not get hung up on labels. They are all women and girls who love to ride their skateboards almost to a fault so let’s focus on positivity and most importantly unify our efforts to continue to move forward.
2011 Combi Classic announced
It’s official, the biggest women’s bowl contest of the year is right around the corner!
The contest will feature 30 invited pros and about 20 AMs and has the biggest women’s transition prize purse of the year, $10,000.
So come on out to Vans at The Block of Orange on Saturday, November 5th. The AM contest starts at 12:30 p.m. and the Pros go on at 1:30.
Tim Brauch Memorial Recap & Video
This year’s Tim Brauch Memorial Contest had over 20 female participants, along with locals in the crowd who easily could’ve gotten in the mix if they weren’t so anti-contest.
These turnouts are slowly starting to reflect the Sports Business Research Network statistic showing that female participation in skateboarding has risen to 24.3% of U.S. skateboarders in 2010 and is still rising steadily. I’m sure it won’t be too long until the marketing heads of the skate industry catch onto the potential in that kind of market share…
With company support, like Silly Girl Skateboards whose TM Matt Gaudio gave 8 up-and-comers the opportunity to compete by getting them to the event, we’ll surely see these numbers grow every year.
It was a great event despite the fact that I re-broke my wrist for the 3rd time 5 minutes before the contest, but I skated anyway. Just waiting to hear if I need surgery….
Filming for Underexposed is still going strong, here’s a teaser of some of the interview and skate footage from the weekend.
Amelia Brodka 